JANUARY 2022 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 65
MORE NEW BREWERIES PLANNED IN 2022
FROTHY YEAR FOR CRAFT BEER
BY BERNIE KILKELLY
Despite challenges from the ongoing
pandemic, Long Island’s craft brewing
industry continued to grow in
2021, with new breweries opening
and established breweries expanding.
Beer enthusiasts cheered the return of
beerfests in the fall and Long Island’s
homebrewing clubs returned to in-person
meetings and competitions.
One sure sign of the industry’s resilience
is that all nine breweries that
opened new taprooms in 2020, including
several that opened during pandemic
shutdowns, were going strong at the
end of 2021. One of those breweries was
HopWin’s Brewery in Bay Shore, which
opened for business in April 2020 but
had to wait a few months before having
customers in its taproom. HopWin’s has
developed a loyal following and the
brewery fi nally held a grand opening
party in September 2021.
The number of brewery taprooms on
Long Island continued to climb in 2021,
reaching 53 taprooms compared to just
21 at the beginning of 2016. In February,
Peconic County Brewing opened in
downtown Riverhead, making it the
capital city of craft brewing on Long
Island with six breweries.
One of those Riverhead breweries is
ubergeek Brewing, now located at the
former location of Moustache Brewing.
Rob Raff a, former head brewer of
Moustache and founder of ubergeek,
took over the brewery and taproom of
Moustache in April when Moustache’s
founders decided to switch to a contract
brewing model.
Sand City Brewing of Northport opened
a second location in March in Lindenhurst.
The new 10,000-square-foot
location, dubbed Sand City South, has
a 20-barrel brewing system, double the
size of the brewing system at Sand City’s
Northport location that opened in 2015.
Long Island Farm Brewery opened a
new taproom in June at its brewery in
Manorville. In addition to being a New
York State-licensed farm brewery, it is
located on a working farm, the 80-acre
Waterdrinker Family Farm & Garden.
The brewery uses ingredients from the
farm such as honey in its beers and has
plans to grow its own barley and wheat
on the farm.
Beer lovers welcomed the return of
in-person beerfests in the fall, including
several Oktoberfest events in September.
In Bay Shore, Destination Unknown
Beer Co. (DUBCO) held its Dubtoberfest
and T.J. Finley’s Public House held its
14th annual Oktoberfest celebration.
Out in Riverhead, Greenport Harbor
Brewing Co., Long Ireland Beer Co.,
and Garden of Eve Farm Brewery held
Oktoberfest celebrations, and Tanger
Outlets in Deer Park held its fi rst Oktoberfest
craft beer festival.
Some of Long Island’s most popular
beerfests returned including Whales,
Ales & Salty Tales in October at the Cold
Spring Harbor Whaling Museum. The
Long Island Craft Classic adjusted its
timing and location from its usual
August event at Heckscher State Park
to an October event with horse racing
at Belmont Racetrack.
Cask ale fests remained popular and
Brewers Collective Beer Co. in Bay
Shore held its Indie Cask Fest in October.
Also in October, Port Jeff Brewing had
a cask ale event as part of its three-day
10th anniversary party featuring 10
bands. The Blue Point Cask Ales Festival
returned in grand style in November
with a sold-out crowd enjoying beautiful
fall weather while tasting cask ales
from more than 50 breweries in the
parking lot of the brewery in Patchogue.
A popular attraction at many of these
festivals were homebrews from Long
Island’s three homebrew clubs, Brewers
East End Revival (B.E.E.R), Long Island
Beer and Malt Enthusiasts (LIBME), and
Handgrenades Homebrew and Craft
Beer Club (HHCBC). The clubs were able
to resume in-person monthly meetings
in 2021 and hold competitions, with
B.E.E.R. holding its 24th annual Brew-
Off Homebrew Competition in May aft er
being forced to cancel the competition
in 2020.
Looking ahead, craft beer lovers on
Long Island can look forward to the
opening of more new brewery taprooms
in 2022: Necromantic Brew Co.,
a gluten-free brewery in Farmingdale,
Root + Branch in Copiague, and Take
Two Brewery in Bay Shore. Cheers to
new beers in the New Year!
Bernie Kilkelly is the editor and publisher
of LIBeerGuide.com.
MAIN DISH
HopWin’s Brewery, though open since April 2
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